Could Tram-Trains Be Used To Advantage In Blackpool?
Blackpool tramway is unique in the United Kingdom in that it runs a mixture of modern and heritage trams, which I’ve only seen done on a big scale in Lisbon, where like Blackpool, the heritage trams are a tourist attraction.
It may also be unique in that it is already tram-train ready in terms of dimensions, power supply and other details according to this report on the Sintropher web site.
Blackpool’s trams have two major problems.
The obvious one is that the trams do not serve the main railway station at Blackpool North.
The second is that the trams don’t connect well to any of the stations served by the Blackpool South to Colne service. The best connection is a two hundred metre walk between Squires Gate station and Starr Gate tram stop.
The branch to Blackpool North is being electrified and this should be completed in 2017. The final report of the North of England Electrification Task Force has also recommended that the lines from Burnley to Colne and Kirkham to Blackpool South be electrified in the Tier Two group of lines to be wired.
So it would be reasonable to assume that in a few years Blackpool will have two stations with electric trains to Preston, Liverpool and beyond.
This is a Google Earth image of the area between the two stations.
Blackpool North and South Stations
Blackpool North is indicated by the red arrow and Blackpool South at the bottom of the image, about five hundred metres or so from the sea front and a short walk south of the football ground and extensive car parking for visitors. Neither the football ground or the car parking are well served by the current tramway.
Blackpool South
This Google Earth image shows the area north of Blackpool South to the football ground to a larger scale.
North of Blackpool South Station
I feel that it should be possible for a tram to start northwards from Blackpool South station, go past the car parks and the football ground and then thread its way through to the main tramway route along the sea front.
To the south of the station the rail line is single track all the way to Kirkham and Wesham station, where it joins the main Blackpool branch to Blackpool North.
As this line is now slated for electrification, there are probably cases to electrify it to either main line standard or make the line an extension of the tramway.
If tram-trains successfully pass their trial between Sheffield and Rotherham, then surely using tram-trains to work the services between Blackpool South and Colne, will be looked at seriously.
One factor that could come into the discussion about upgrading of the Blackpool South branch is the important golf course at Royal Lytham and St. Annes, as Ansdell and Fairhaven station is adjacent to the course and is used to transport spectators for important tournaments.
So when will the next Open Championship be staged at Royal Lytham?
Blackpool North
At Blackpool North station, the tram extension is now funded and is being planned.
But will the announcement of electrification to Blackpool South and hopefully successful trialling of tram-trains in Rotherham, add extra possibilities to how the extension to Blackpool North station is implemented?
This is the Google Earth image of Blackpool North station, which is indicated by a red arrow, to the sea front.
Blackpool North Station
Wikipedia also indicates that the spur to the station will join the main tramway north of the North Pier, which is the pier shown in the image.
One possible way of building the spur, would be to make it compatible with tram-trains so that some trains arriving at Blackpool North could transfer to the tramway.
The Karlsruhe Model
If both Blockpool stations were to be served by tram-trains that then ran between the two two stations, then would be an example of the classic Karlsruhe model that has been successfully working in the city since 1992.
Between the two stations, they would work as trams and once clear of the tramway, they would work as normal trains.
Advantages Of Using Tram-Trains Between The Two Blackpool Stations
The tram-train services would probably be on a simple loop between the two stations, with tram-trains turning back at either Kirkham and Wesham or Preston stations. Alternatively, services could be something more substantial serving the wider area. Certainly some tram-trains would go all the way to Colne to replace the current service.
But whatever is done, if tram-trains are used to link the two stations, various advantages will be seen.
1. Long distance services into Blackpool North would have easier access to the tram network, which would probably be step free.
2.As Preston would probably have more trains to Blackpool, this would give Blackpool better access to other long distance services to say Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Birmingham.
3. Local services running tram-trains from perhaps Preston and Colne would have immediate access to some of the central tram stops in Blackpool, as these stops would be on the link between the two stations.
4. Blackpool South station would become a simple tram stop.
5. Space might also be released at Blackpool North station, depending on how much space was needed for the tram-train stop.
6. Extra trams would be running on the busiest central section of the tramway.
7.If the football ground and the main car parks were on the central loop, this would improve transport links to the town.
Probably the most difficult thing to get right would be the ticketing method, which London has shown must be based on a contactless bank card.
Implications Of Tram-Trains On Services To Colne
With the announcement that the East Lancashire Line is to be electrified to Colne, there would be no problem running tram-trains through both Blackpool stations and then through Preston and on to Colne.
The line from Rose Grove to Colne appears to be mainly single track, with some stations looking like tram stops, with a pile of bricks at the track-side.
If tram-trains were to run on the Colne Line as trams, this would actually be a service upgrade, despite the apparent downgrading of the line from trains to trams. If the powers-that-be thought that more stops were needed, these would be simple affairs, with a low platform on one or both sides of the track, with perhaps a simple shelter and a ticket machine. As on other tram lines in the UK, passengers would walk across the line rather than use an expensive footbridge. To see what is possible on a good tramway, look at this post about good stop design for trams and tram-trains.
But the two biggest improvements would be a much more frequent service, that probably ran at least twice an hour on weekdays and hourly on Sundays, that used new comfortable electric low-floor tram-trains something like the Class 399, being used for trials in Sheffield.
As to speed, the increased acceleration of the tram-trains would mean that stopping wasn’t as time-consuming as on say a Class 142 train. also outside of urban areas and some way from stops, they would be able to run at a more appropriate speed using the railway rules currently in force on the line. Incidentally, some UK trams like Croydon and Edinburgh go faster than you think when the track allows.
Tram-trains would appear at a cursory glance, to be a simple and affordable way to improve services in this neglected part of Lancashire.
Improving Transport In Burnley
Burnley is one of those places most famous outside the local area for football, but it is a market town of over seventy thousand people. The town probably needs improved transport connections, despite having four railway stations, the most important of which; Burnley Manchester Road has recently been rebuilt.
A big improvement will come by electrifying all of the lines, which will mean that Rose Grove and Manchester Road, will be on an important electrified artery between Leeds and Preston. The other line is the Colne Branch of the East Lancashire Line and this has three stations in the town; Rose Grove, Burnley Barracks and Burnley Central.
This Google Earth image shows the four stations as they relate to Burnley.
Burnley And Its Stations
Rose Grove is at the West, just to the south of the M65 motorway and is served by both lines. The Colne Line curves to the north with the two stations at Barracks and Central to the western end of the town centre, which is indicated by the red arrow. Manchester Road station is at the southern edge of the image, a steep walk up the hill from the town centre.
If the Colne Line were to be run by tram-trains, would this create a better and more accessible railway for Burnley.
As an example of what could happen, north from Burnley Central , the Colne Line follows the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, so are there possibilities to use a tram-train to give better access to the countryside above the town?
Using tram-trains on the Colne Line could improve public transport in Burnley and the other towns like Nelson and Colne, without laying a metre of new expensive railway.
But why stop the trains at Colne?
The final report of the North of England Electrification Task Force has also recommended that the lines from Skipton to Carlisle via Settle be electrified in the Tier Three group of lines to be wired.
The Skipton – East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership is also campaigning for the line between Colne and Skipton to be reinstated. This map of the missing part of the line is taken from the Wikipedia entry.
Skipton To Colne
Would the missing link be easier and more affordable to build, if it continued as a modern, single-track tramway?
This type of line would also be less visually intrusive, if it used 750 V DC overhead wires, which are all that would be needed for the Class 399 tram-train.
Building this link between Skipton and Colne would further connect the electrified lines in the Leeds area, with the soon to be electrified ones of North Lancashire. As the map shows, Skipton is on the iconic route through Settle between Leeds and Carlisle, which is also in the queue for electrification.
Skipton is the key to the success of any scheme to improve the Colne Line and link it to the town. The town is known as the Gateway to the Dales and already has direct services to London. This section in Wikipedia shows that there are impressive plans for services in the future.
But that was written before the North of England Electrification Task Force reported that Skipton to Carlisle through Settle was an electrification scheme for Tier Three. This was probably included more for freight reasons, as it creates a new route for electrified freight trains from Yorkshire, the East Midlands and the Electric Spine from Southampton to Scotland.
And to think that the line was nearly closed, but a certain Michael Portillo didn’t sign it off!
So will we see electrified passenger services from the South coming up via Leeds and Skipton to Carlisle? I think we will and if the Borders Railway is a success, then I think in perhaps 2040, these trains will reach Edinburgh.
So I think this all means that the tram-trains to Colne, should be used to create a link to Skipton.
Services Between Blackpool And Liverpool
Currently there is just a measly single train each hour between Blackpool and Liverpool.
Ormskirk to Preston is another line that could be chosen for electrification and it is likely that under the Liverpool rules it will be served by four trains per hour.
So I think it is reasonable to assume that when electrification to Blackpool North is complete, that the frequency of Liverpool-Blackpool services will be increased. After all when electrification is complete various routes via Ormskirk, Wigan, Newton-Le-Willows and St. Helens will all be possible.
But the possibility also exists for the use of tram-trains on this route, which will then go round the loop in Blackpool.
Obviously, passenger numbers will determine what services are worth trialling.
There is also the possibility of linking Royal Lytham and St. Annes with the other high-quality golf courses south of Southport.
Conclusion
The Blackpool tramway could use tram-trains to connect the electrified stations at Blackpool North and South, and over a wider network, especially over the Colne Line and its possible extension to Skipton.
The Scenic Route From Leeds To Manchester
As I had plenty of time to travel across the Pennines to get from Leeds to Manchester Victoria, I took the scenic route on the Calder Valley Line.
The line is slower than a direct train to Piccadilly, taking probably twenty minutes longer, but I sat in a comfortable Class 156 train across the table from several friendly;y passengers, watching the countryside go by.
By coincidence today this article on Modern Railways web site, entitled Calder Valley Tops Wires Wishlist was published.
It says that full electrification of the line is the top priority after the current electrification is completed.
After all, they’ve got to create some high-quality electric railways on which to run all those shiny refurbished Class 319 trains. Thirty years old they may be, but they have the heart and soul of someone at least ten years younger. And there are a battalion of eight-six of the trains, should the powers-that-be send them all to the North to dispatch a lot of Pacers to menial duties or the scrapyard.
The electrification will mean that four-car electric trains will be able to run from Leeds via Halifax, Hebden Bridge and the Todmorden Curve all the way to Manchester Victoria, Liverpool and Blackpool.
Could Tram-Trains Be Used To Advantage In Liverpool?
This document discusses the various issues concerning tram, tram-trains and conventional rail in the wider Liverpool area.
It is divided into the following sections.
1. Liverpool Trams And The Merseytram Proposal
2. A Tram-Train To The Airport
3. The Future Of Public Transport In The Wider Liverpool Area
4. Further Electrification In The Merseyrail Network
5. Extensions To The Merseyrail Network
7. Increasing Capacity On The Northern Line Through The City Centre
8. Connecting To Football At Anfield And Goodison Park
9. Capacity Problems At Lime Street
10. There Is A Need For Extra Southern Terminals
11. Upgrading The Halton Curve
12. Expansion Of South Parkway Station
13. The Canada Dock Branch And The Edge Hill Spur
14. The North Mersey Branch To Aintree
16. Electrified and Extended Lines In The North
18. Electrification Between Liverpool to Manchester via Warrington Central
22. Conclusions
Note that all of this post was produced using WordPress with most of the maps from Google Earth.
1. Liverpool Trams And The Merseytram Proposals
Liverpool doesn’t have trams any more, although it does have a legacy of wide dual-carriageways with a wide grass area in the middle, which was where the trams used to run. These would help with on-street running of a modern tram system.
Plans for a system called Merseytram are hanging around.
Merseytram Map
This map shows the comprehensive nature of the proposal.
In some ways, I’m surprised that Liverpool hasn’t done something to implement a modern system.
Liverpool too, doesn’t have much traffic congestion outside of the city centre and as they’ve just abolished bus lanes without too many protests, it might be assumed, that there is not the need for any more public transport, other than the current extensive buses and trains.
The latter are undergoing more electrification.
2. A Tram-Train To The Airport
However, there is one place, where a tram-train is being proposed in the area. Look at this Google Earth image, showing the area between Liverpool South Parkway station and John Lennon Airport.
Liverpool South Parkway To John Lennon Airport
I’m not sure of the route and I can’t find anything on the Internet, but an airport to a nearby station is a classic tram-train application, as effectively you’re extending a rail line, by using much more affordable tramway infrastructure. In this type of application, you often have lots of airport infrastructure like secondary terminals and car parks, that need to be connected to both ends of the link. In Liverpool’s case you might even put a stop at Speke Hall. I know the area fairly well and those wide dual-carriageways and spare land alongside the railways will mean that putting in the tracks and stops will not be the most challenging of engineering. It would appear that compared to other schemes proposed for tram-trains it is very affordable, with the major cost being procuring the new tram-trains, which would also be used to run to the city centre and beyond on the existing train lines, giving passengers a one vehicle journey to a large number of places in Liverpool city centre.
What makes this proposal even more sensible in my view, is that Liverpool South Parkway, is served by both the City Line and the Northern Line that go to the city centre. Within a few years both lines will be electrified and would be a route for tram-trains.
This proposal is surely one of several around the country, that will be looked at in great detail, if the Sheffield-Rotherham tram-train trial is a success.
After my experiences in Kassel and Karlruhe, I’m sure that trial will be an outstanding success. If only, because we’ve got all the accumulated knowledge from design and operations of several tram-train systems all round the world.
3. The Future Of Public Transport In The Wider Liverpool Area
Liverpool and Merseyside in general have various plans, problems and decisions to take or solve in the next few years.
4. Further Electrification In The Merseyrail Area
On March the fifth, 2015 the North of England Electrification Task Force published its final report of which lines should be electrified.
The lines are grouped into three tiers and those in the Merseyrail area are.
Tier 1
- Liverpool to Manchester via Warrington Central
- Southport/Kirkby to Salford Crescent
- Chester to Stockport
- Warrington to Chester
Tier 2
- Chester to Crewe
Tier 3
- Ormskirk to Preston
These and other schemes may or may not effect this discussion.
5. Extensions To The Merseyrail Network
This map from Wikipedia shows the current network.
Merseyrail Network
A lot of the lines out of the centre end in areas in need of development, at all places on the price scale. Some of these and other places might be better served by using tram-trains, which run on from the current network and then perhaps could even go on a loop at the end of the line before returning to the city centre.
- The Skelmersdale branch could be reopened from Ormskirk.
- Could tram-trains run along the coast from Ainsdale, to the north of Southport, to create a tram line serving all of the golf courses and other leisure facilities?
- Could tram-trains help sort out the problems at Kirkby station, by going in a worthwhile loop around the town?
- Edge Hill to Bootle is an important freight line, that runs close to Goodison and Anfield football grounds, Network Rail have stated that this line may be electrified. Would using tram-trains with their simpler infrastructure needs make adding passenger services on this line easier?
- The North Mersey Branch from Bootle to Aintree is another freight line, that also runs close to Aintree racecourse. Like Edge Hill to Bootle, could tram-trains be a more affordable solution to adding passenger services to the line?
- Liverpool have long had aspirations to build an Outer Rail Loop. The route is safeguarded and could tram-trains enable an affordable passenger service?
I suspect that other lines and branches will be added to this list.
It is worth noting that all the tram-trains I’ve seen in Kassel, Karksruhe and Mulhouse, start on one line coming into the city as a train, go through the city centre as a tram and then take another line out of the city as a train. The Sheffield to Rotherham trial will use a version of this model. However in Liverpool, it would appear more likely, that tram-trains will be used to extend the existing rail network.
I don’t think anybody in their right mind, would expect Liverpool to follow convention.
6. Train Replacement
Merseyrail has a current fleet of just under 60, Class 507 and Class 508 three-car electric trains, that work the DC lines and these will need replacement in a few years. At nearly thirty-five years old, they are older than a lot of the dreaded Pacers. But they have certainly worn better.
With all the 25kV AC electrification that is planned for the area, any new trains would have to be dual-voltage, so they wouldn’t be limited in where they ran on the Merseyrail network.
Should some of the replacement trains, be something like Class 399 tram-trains? Some of these may be purchased anyway, if the tram link between Liverpool South Parkway and John Lennon Airport goes ahead.
They also tick all of the boxes of being dual-voltage, low-floor and with main-line performance and crash protection, so they could work the City, Wirral and Northern Lines, without causing problems with faster traffic.
They could probably be easily certified for working in tunnels.
It is worth stating some of the sdvantages I perceived when I saw tram-trains in action, in Kassel, Karlsruhe and Mulhouse.
1. When running as trains on a normal rail line, they fit in with the other traffic just like an electric multiple unit of the same length, taking their power from either overhead line or third-rail at the line’s voltage. Except for testing, you could run a compatible tram-train on many rail lines tomorrow.
2. When running as trams, they trundle around slowly in very much the same manner as trams do in Manchester, Sheffield and Croydon. Stops just need to be shelters with information and possibly a ticket machine. Power would usually come from a simple 750V DC overhead line, like most tramways in the UK and Europe.
3. Tram-trains can also run as trams on say a freight line, which has been electrified with either 25kV AC or 750V DC overhead line. This type of operation is being trialled on a Sheffield to Rotherham freight line to test the applicability of tram-trains to the UK. If the stops are simple affairs and not complete stations, the cost is kept low.
4.One problem that tram-trains might have is the difficulty of maintaining level access to the different platform heights. The new tram-trains in Mulhouse used clever steps to make sure it is easy to get on and off for all passengers.
5. Early tram-trains used to have separate control systems for when they were running as trams and as trains. But I suspect now, that UK trains are being equipped to run under ERTMS, which does away with line-side signals and relys on radio and screens, that this system can be used in tram-mode. This would certainly simplify operation.
In some ways because we are late to look at tram-trains we get the benefit of everybody else’s design and operational mistakes.
We might even be lucky in that a tram-train can be designed and built, that could run on any tram or train line in the country.
7. Increasing Capacity On The Northern Line Through The City Centre
This is mentioned as a problem in the Wikipedia entry for Merseyrail under tram-trains. This is said.
Tram-trains would allow street running, providing an alternative route through Liverpool city centre. It could potentially relieve pressure on the busy underground section of the network.
I don’t think you’d take a route in front of Lime Street station, but you could run along the historic water-front, to much the same route as the iconic Liverpool Overhead Railway. Although, you’d probably run at street level, rather than on a viaduct.
The line could run up the Mersey starting from Garston, Liverpool South Parkway or even the Airport in the South, going through the gardens along the river at Otterspool and then move away from the river to go on the landward side of the Albert Dock, the Liverpool Arena and the Three Graces. It would go close to the shops at Liverpool One, James Street station, the Mersey Ferries, the Cruise Ship Terminal and the development at Liverpool Waters, before possibly rejoining the Northern Line.
Liverpool are thinking of creating a new station at Vauxhall between Moorfields and Sandhills stations, which could be a good place for the rejoining. Incidentally, the developers are proposing a monorail link to the city centre for this development, so at least transport is being thought about.
This would be World-class transportation for a city making a reputation for itself as a World-class destination.
8. Connecting To Football At Anfield And Goodison Park
When people think about Liverpool, many think about football. I also think there is an increasing trend for football grounds at the top level to be well-served by trains or trams.
Following on from the previous section about increasing capacity on the Northern Line through the city centre, look at this Google Earth image of the area between Sandhills station and Anfield and Goodison Park.
Sandhills Station, Anfield and Goodison Park
Sandhills is the station, from where connecting buses leave for football and it is indicated by a red arrow. North of Sandhills you can see Bank Hall station on the Southport branch of the Northern Line and Kirkdale station on the Kirkby branch.
Crossing under the two branches of the Northern Line, just south of Bank Hall and Kirkdale, and then curving away initially in a north-easterly direction before turning south-easterly around the Anfield Cemetery is the Edge Hill to Bootle Line or the Canada Dock branch, which is an important route for freight trains in and out of the docks. Merseyrail would like to use this line as a passenger line possibly with a station at Walton and Anfield, which would be about four hundred metres from Goodison Park and another at Breck Road, which would be a little bit further from Anfield. This modified Google Earth image, shows the two football grounds and the stations.
Anfield, Goodison Park and Stations
Obviously, Walton and Anfield is shown with a blue circle and Breck Road with a red one. I don’t know the area very well, as I have only been to Anfield once in the last forty years or so, so it might be that there is a possibility of putting a station at Utting Avenue or the north-east corner of the cemetery to serve both grounds. Both possibilities are shown with white circles.
If tram-trains were to be used on this line running as trams, then it might be possible to use a simple standard station design, as all stations are on bridges over roads. The Disused Stations web site has some more information and pictures, about the former Walton and Anfield and Breck Road stations.
As the line curves round to Edge Hill, supporters coming from the South and East could avoid the City Centre.
9. Capacity Problems At Lime Street
Liverpool Lime Street is a station, where capacity is a problem and I’ve read somewhere that Virgin can’t run their longest Pendolinos to the city. Wikipedia says this about work being done to create an extra platform.
The old platform 6A which is located next to platform 7 and is only used as a siding will become the new platform 7 in 2014. Existing platforms 7/8/9 will become new platforms 8/9/10, this will allow new long distance services to start and terminate at Lime Street to Scotland and London starting in 2015 from the new platform 8 & 9 (Virgin Trains).
There is also an idea called the Edge Hill Spur, that has been in the pipeline since the 1970s. This extract from Wikipedia sums it up.
The construction of the Spur would have connected the City Line branches to the east of Liverpool into the electrified Merseyrail network and importantly the underground section in Liverpool’s city centre. An increase in integration and connectivity of the system would be achieved. An additional and substantial benefit was releasing platform space at Lime Street mainline terminus station from urban to mid and long haul mainline routes, as the Spur would divert local urban routes entering the city underground in the city centre.
So everybody would seem to win. Even I would, as one of the proposals now is to have an underground station at my old University of Liverpool.
The accountants certainly win too, as much of the tunnelling required was dug by the Victorians or was enabled when Liverpool sorted out the underground railway in the 1980s.
One of the things that you have to remember as a visitor to Liverpool, is that the city centre slopes down to the Mersey, so it is an easy walk. I can walk up, but those with a lot of purchases in Liverpool One or various movement problems can get a train up from James Street station, a bus or a taxi.
There may be a case for running tram-trains as trams past Lime Street station, but I think if the connection at the station to the underground lines is improved and the train frequency around the loop is increased, then there is a lot less need. As it is frequencies to all destinations on the Wirral Line at Lime Street are four trains per hour, so to get to Central or James Street usually means a wait of no more than four minutes.
Once at Central to go North it’s the same fifteen minute frequency to go all destinations, with a train every five minutes. Going south to Hunts Cross there’s a train every fifteen minutes.
New trains with perhaps four cars and ERTMS, drawing on the experience of Crossrail and Thameslink in London, may be able to increase the capacity through the core.
10. There Is A Need For Extra Southern Terminals
If you look at the East London Line in London, which is of a similar layout of a central core with north and south branches, that runs modern trains, this handles sixteen trains per hour through its core section.
I think it is reasonable to expect that the Northern Line should be able to take a similar number of trains. But as the planned frequency in London is twenty-four and ERTMS is coming to both lines, does sixteen trains per hour on the Northern Line look very conservative? .
My scheduling gut-feelings also say that if the number of destinations south of the city centre were increased and this meant that fewer trains were turned back at Liverpool Central, then capacity and frequency would be raised. This section on services at Liverpool Central says that twelve services an hour go north to the various destinations of Southport, Ormskirk and Kirkby and only four go south to Hunts Cross and Liverpool South Parkway. So that means eight per hour have to wait. It’s a similar problem to what used to happen in London at Edgware Road on the Circle Line, except there it was an easy solution. They turned the circle into a spiral.
Trains and drivers seem to be wasting their time sitting in the turn back platform at Liverpool Central, when they could be doing something useful, like perhaps running to Runcorn or Warrington.
The Edge Hill Spur won’t help, as because it joins to the north of Liverpool Central station, if another terminus is not added in the south, this will just add to the problems.
Resources must be balanced, so if from Sandhills to Liverpool Central the frequency is twelve trains per hour, the frequency should be planned to be the same from Liverpool Central to Brunswick.
If the traffic isn’t balanced you get trains in the centre waiting to go back north.
If Merseyrail wants to run traffic to three northern destinations at a frequency of four trains per hour, it would seem that one of the best solutions would be to run trains to three southern destinations at the same frequency. On the East London Line, there are four Southern destinations and two in the north, but each with two platforms.
In Liverpool they’ve already got Hunts Cross and they’re planning to add the Airport as another. I think they need another to balance the line and improve frequency and punctuality.
11. Upgrading The Halton Curve
Funds have been made available to upgrade the Halton Curve, so that trains can reach Chester from Liverpool South Parkway via Runcorn.
The Halton Curve
The two blue squares indicate the two ends of the current single-track curve. The top one is where the curve leaves the Liverpool branch of the West Coast Main Line south of Runcorn station and the bottom one is where it joins the Chester to Manchester Line east of Frodsham.
The main reason for doing this would be to allow trains from Chester and North Wales better access to Liverpool Lime Street and South Parkway stations, and the John Lennon Airport.
As the Tier Two and Three electrification plans for the North as they effect Merseyside, include full electrification of the lines around Chester, this would mean that an upgraded curve would be electrified.
There are probably good reasons to add an extra track to the curve, which would make it possible for Chester to be a new southern destination of the Northern Line.
12. Expansion Of South Parkway Station
Liverpool South Parkway was built as a transport hub so that travellers to the city,could use the local electric trains to get to all parts of the area, without going into the city centre. This Google Earth image shows how the station is built between the Northern Line and the Liverpool branch of the West Coast Main Line.
Liverpool South Parkway Station
The Northern Line platforms are at the bottom, with the ones to the right serving the other lines, so it is effectively two stations and a transport hub.
Liverpool want to get more services running from Liverpool South Parkway station and would like to see some Virgin Trains services stop there, but the platforms are too shirt for Pendelinos.
Tram-trains might help grow traffic, as with the airport connection and perhaps other services using the technology, the station could become a hub from where you could get all over Merseyside.
Other factors will also help.
1. As time progresses, quite a high proportion of services from to and from Liverpool Lime Street will stop at the station, so it could become an alternative station from where to catch long distance trains.
2. Merseyrail wants to fully develop the Halton curve, which will give alternative routes to Chester and North Wales. Due to its proximity to the John Lennon Airport, Liverpool South Parkway can only benefit.
3. Merseyrail also have a desire to create an Outer Rail Loop that encircles the city. Nothing has happened much in recent years, but if the North Liverpool Extension Line should be reopened, I’ll ride it, as it goes through places dear to my memory of the wonderful four years I spent in Liverpool. C and myself at one time lived in a rented flat near Gateacre station on the line and regularly drunk in the Black Bull pub in Gateacre. If the line should be reopened and a circular railway is formed around Liverpool, Soputh Parkway station will only gain more traffic.
4. HS2 and HS3, if they reach Liverpool will surely stop at Liverpool South Parkway.
Most Parkway stations in this country are isolated and you need a car to get to them, but Liverpool South Parkway is unique in that it is a transport hub outside of the city centre close to an airport.
I believe that in time South Parkway will become an alternative station to Lime Street. After all, it only takes twenty minutes on a train between South Parkway and Central or Moorfields in the city centre.
Improved trains and a few tram-trains can only hasten the rise of this station’s importance.
13. The Canada Dock Branch and the Edge Hill Spur
I talked in Section 7 about how the Canada Dock Branch between Bootle and Edge Hill could improve passenger services in an arc in the north-eastern part of the city and in Section 8 about how capacity problems at Lime Street might be improved by the Edge Hill Spur.
Edge Hill station is one of the oldest stations in the country and will only grow in importance, when it receives the new electrified services from Manchester in a few months. At present the Canada Dock Branch is not electrified, but with the large number of freight trains going into and out of the docks, it can’t be long before this line gets wired.
This Google Earth image shows where the southern end of the Canada Dock branch splits to allow trains to go east to Broad Green station or west to Edge Hill station.
The Southern End Of The Canada Dock Branch
The chord going east is the Olive Mount Chord, which was only reopened in 2009 to create an easier route for freight trains between Seaforth Dock and the West Coast Main Line. Read this section in the Wikipedia entry for Seaforth Dock, which describes how one three hundred metre rail line made everything easier and increased capacity of the rail line by 100%. It also freed up capacity so that a passenger service could be created.
The station south of the junction is Wavertree Technology Park on the main Liverpool to Manchester Line, between Edge Hill and Broad Green. It should also be noted that there used to be a station at Edge Lane, where the branch crosses the road of that name.
Obviously, if the Canada Dock Branch were to be run using tram-trains, there are possibilities of extra stops in the area.
Merseyrail originally planned to put a transport hub at Broad Green and you can see why, as trains on both the Canada Dock Branch and the Edge Hill spur could pass to or through the station. As this Google Earth image shows, the station is shoe-horned into a forest of motorways and dual-carriageway roads.
Broad Green Station
, A good creative architect could make something of this transport hub and give Broad Green a bay platforms for the extra trains.
14. The North Mersey Branch To Aintree
The North Mersey Branch is a railway to the north of Liverpool, that is really only used for engineering purposes. It originally linked Gladstone Dock and Bootle with Aintree and the racecourse.
This Google Earth image shows the line of the Aintree end of the branch.
The North Mersey Branch
The station on the left of the image is Seaforth and Litherland and Aintree station and the racecourse can be seen in the east.
The line could also be extended to the west into the docks and at the east to Kirkby, which is an area that in the 1960s needed a good sort-out of public transport and probably still does.
Could this be a line that would benefit the area, by being turned into a tram-train route across the north of the city?
15. The Skelmersdale Branch
Skelmersdale is the second largest town in North West England without a railway service. Merseyrail’s entry on Wikipedia, has a section about the reopening of the Skelmersdale Branch to the town centre, which includes this.
The reopening of a section of the Skelmersdale Branch from Upholland to Skelmersdale town centre has been proposed.[42] The line was completely closed in 1963. This would give Skelmersdale, the second largest town in North West England without a railway service, direct access to Liverpool city centre. Network Rail has recommended that a further feasibility study be carried out.
One proposal is to extend the line from Ormskirk station by laying 3 miles of new single track along the previous route towards Rainford Junction station.
This single track proposal could be one to be built in an affordable way for a tram-train.
16. Electrified and Extended Lines In The North
Under the electrification plans for the North, some of the lines fanning out in the north of Liverpool and Southport will be electrified.
In Tier One, the Southport to Manchester Line and the Kirkby Branch would be joined to the electrification in Manchester at Salford Crescent station, which is being improved and expanded.
This electrification is essentially separate from the third-rail Northern Line, so it does mean that Southport and Kirkby stations will be on both electrification systems.
Where they do interact more directly is when under Tier Three of the electrification, the Ormskirk to Preston Line is electrified.
This line crosses the Southport to Manchester Line at the Burscough Curves. Merseyrail have wanted to reinstate this full junction for some time and this is said about the curves on the Wikipedia entry for Merseyrail.
The Burscough Curves were short chords linking the Ormskirk to Preston Line with the Manchester to Southport Line. The last regular passenger trains ran over the curves in 1962; the tracks were subsequently lifted. The reinstatement of the Burscough Curves would allow direct Preston-Southport and Ormskirk-Southport services and provide an alternative Liverpool-Southport route. Network Rail has recommended that a strategy for the Burscough Curves be developed further.
This Google Earth image shows the curves.
Burscough Curves
The two stations are Burscough Junction indicated by the red arrow on the Ormskirk to Preston Line and Burscough Bridge on the Southport to Manchester Line. The crossing of the two lines can be clearly seen and the two curves can also be made out, although the track was lifted decades ago.
Although, a reinstated junction would undoubtedly be good for the area, this link doesn’t really have any ramifications for the rail system in Liverpool, as both lines will have 25kV AC overhead electrification.
If trains on the Northern Line are to run past Ormskirk and Kirkby, they would have to be dual-voltage.
17. The Outer Rail Loop
Wikipedia explains the Outer Rail Loop in a section of the entry for Merseyrail, This is said.
The Orbital Outer Rail Loop was a part of the initial Merseyrail plans of the 1970s. The route circled the outer fringes of the city of Liverpool using primarily existing rail lines merged to create the loop. With Liverpool city having a semi-circular footprint with the city centre at the western fringe against the River Mersey, the western section of the loop would run through the city centre. The scheme was started along with the creation of Merseyrail however postponed due to cost cutting.
As Liverpool has been a major port since we started building railways in this country, as in London and Glasgow, they go hither and thither linking the docks to the lines in and out of the city.
The railways that may go to create the Outer Rail Loop, like the North Liverpool Extension Line, North Mersey Branch Line and some of the electified lines in the city, are either fully operational or safeguarded.
It’s a real pity that all those railways closed after the Beeching Report, were not protected from building over, as we’d have saved millions in creating some of the new railways.
But then design by hindsight is easy.
As finally planned the Outer Rail Loop was a northern loop and a southern one. Each probably has their own very good reasons why they should be built and the large economic forces at work in Liverpool will decide what actually gets built.
Most of the North Liverpool Extension Line now is a walk called the Mersey Path. This Google Earth image shows the green way, where the track used to be.
North Liverpool Extension Line
The red arrow picks out Broad Green station and you can see the green line of the Mersey Path or Liverpool Loop Line passing to its right in a northerly direction. At the southern end it splits with one branch going east to Halewood and the other west to Hunts Cross.
I never rode the original trains, but the place names as you go north bring back lots of memories; Gateacre, Childwall, Broad Green, Knotty Ash, West Derby, Fazakerley, Walton, Aintree and Huskisson. Pronunciation of most has to be learned by foreigners!
In writing this, I think those planners in the 1960s got their ideas right. An Outer Rail Loop might just be a good idea for which the technology has finally arrived.The Liverpool Loop Line has certainly been well-laid out as a cycle and walking route.
Imagine a tram-train using the path in tram mode running on mainly a single track with passing places, which it shares with the cycle and walking route of the Mersey Path. I don’t know of this being done in the UK, but I’ve certainly seen it in The Netherlands. But something similar has been done to provide a walking and cycling route alongside the Cambridge Guided Busway and Wilford Toll Bridge is being widened to take Line 2 of the Nottingham tram and cyclists and pedestrians.
Starting at Hunts Cross, it would go up the line to Broad Green, where it would have an interchange with the Liverpool to Manchester and Wigan services, and then it would loop across the north of the city to the Mersey and the Docks. Interchanges could be made with the Northern Line there and the tram-trains could even go back down the riverside to Hunts Cross.
18. Electrification Between Liverpool and Manchester via Warrington Central
This electrification has been proposed in the Tier One electrification plans for the North.
This is the busiest passenger route between the two cities will start from Hunts Cross at the Liverpool end and continue through Warrington to Manchester Piccadilly.
This electrification has been mooted before and the Wikipedia section for the line says this.
The Liverpool to Warrington section of this line was initially scheduled to be on the Merseyrail electric urban network. The Strategic Plan for the North West, the SPNW, in 1973 envisaged that the Outer Loop which was to be an orbital line circling the city of Liverpool, the Edge Hill Spur which is a tunnel connecting the east of Liverpool to the central underground sections, and the lines to St. Helens, Wigan and Warrington would be electrified and all integrated into Merseyrail by 1991. This meant that trains from Warrington would access Liverpool city centre’s underground stations via the Northern Line and Liverpool Central underground station, giving access to Liverpool’s shopping and business quarters. This never transpired, however is a long term aspiration of Merseytravel.
It truly has taken a long time to be planned, let alone delivered.
If Northern Line trains do eventually run to Warrington, then like the trains used to extend to the north, they will have to be specified as dual-voltage, to run in the third-rail electrified tunnel and on the sections of the line with 25kV AC overhead electrification.
19. A Coastal Tramway
Liverpool Airport is on the bank of the Mersey and the current Northern Line goes all the way up the coast to Southport. The West Lancashire Railway used to continue the line to Preston but was closed in the 1960s. This Google Earth image shows the coasts and major towns around Liverpool.
The Liverpool Coastline
This image shows there is a possibility to extend the tramway in the north. If the Blackpool trams and the Northern Line were both extended almost as far as Preston, they could be connected across the River Ribble and you would have a scenic way of getting between Blackpool and Liverpool on a coastal tramway, that took in all range of sites from world class architecture to some of the best links golf courses.
Going west the Wirral Line at West Kirby could be extended down the coast of the River Dee. I don’t think you’d make a direct route, but passengers could change lines at an upgraded James Street station. Its design doesn’t really reflect its importance as a station, but says more about being an economy station station created in the 1970s.
Going south towards Widnes and Runcorn would never have been a possibility, when I lived in Liverpool and worked in Runcorn in the late 1960s, but now all is changing. I believe that it is so significant that it deserves its own section.
If Northern Line trains do eventually run to Warrington, then they will have to be specified as dual-voltage.
20. The Mersey Gateway
The Mersey Gateway is a new bridge being built over the river to the east of the existing Silver Jubilee Runcorn-Widnes Bridge. This Google Earth image shows the Mersey from Liverpool South Parkway station to the massive Fiddlers Ferry Power Station.
Along The Mersey
The station is indicated by a red arrow and you can clearly see the existing bridge across the Mersey, next to the Britannia Bridge carrying the Liverpool Branch of the West Coast Main Line. The power station is at the top right or north-east corner of the image.
This is said by Wikipedia about the charging arrangements for the new bridge.
It is envisaged that the new bridge will be a toll bridge, with three lanes in each direction. The Halton Borough Council has also stated that the current bridge will also become a toll bridge, making Halton the only borough in England separated by only toll bridges. It was also put forward that the current bridge may be reduced to one lane in each direction for vehicles, with the other two lanes being converted into cycle lanes and/or pedestrian lanes.
As the current bridge is toll free, it will go down like a lead balloon. Especially with those, who commute across the river to and from Liverpool every day. There is this report on the BBC, saying that Halton residents will be able to use the bridge for free. It would appear there is a strong campaign against the tolls from the report.
One good alternative would be to extend the Northern Line from Hunts Cross to Runcorn, but Runcorn station would not have the capacity in its present form. Look at this Google Earth image of the area from the station to the bridges.
Runcorn Station And The Bridges
It might be possible to squeeze in the extra platform and junctions that would be needed, or more probably the trains could go on via the Halton Curve to Chester via Frodsham and Helsby. Obviously, following practice on the Northern Line, there would be an objective of providing four trains per hour to and from Hunts Cross and the centre of Liverpool. Look at this Google Earth image of the northern end of the Halton Curve.
Northern End Of The Halton Curve
Surely a station could be built in this area, which could also be used to turnback trains for Liverpool. Tram-trains might be able to take a circular on-street route around the town, if that was thought to be what was needed.
Returning to the North Bank of the river, the first image in this section shows a rail freight line that runs from Liverpool docks to the power station for the transport of biomass via Liverpool South Parkway. This Google Earth image shows the area north of the Mersey around Widnes.
Widnes
The freight line can be seen going across the image from west to east, passing under the railway and roads linking to the existing bridges, then following on the north side of the dual-carriageway before going southwards to follow the St. Helens Canal.
So could this line be used by extended Northern Line services in the future? I suspect that within a few years, plans will be published for the decommissioning of the power station, as it is now over forty years old, so who knows what will be done with the site. But surely, a good train or tram-train service to the centre of Liverpool in the west and Warrington and Manchester in the east will be essential, whatever is developed on the site.
The train line could also have stations or even simple tram stops in the region of both bridges. Unfortunately, due to the design and height of the approaches to the Britannia and Silver Jubilee Bridges, a simple interchange might not be possible, but you could rebuild the station at Ditton, where the two lines meet.
The biggest problem for Widnes and Runcorn, is that the borough is effectively in two parts on either side of the River Mersey.
The availability of tram-trains may give advantages to sorting this out, but overall the Mersey Gateway, looks like a project,that has been designed in isolation for road users.
21. Onward To Warrington
Currently, Widnes is served by trains on the Liverpool to Manchester Line that go via Warrington Central station.This Google Earth image shows the Warrington area.
Warrington
Warrington Central station is to the right of the red arrow indicating Warrington and Warrington Bank Quay station is below the arrow to the left on the West Coast Main Line. One of the problems of the trains in the town, is that you have to get a shuttle bus, a taxi or walk between the two stations.
Note how the freight line along the Mersey goes around the bend of the Mersey on the left, under Warrington Bank Quay station in the disused Low Level station and then crosses the Mersey before going off in a south-easterly direction. To the West of Warrington, this railway is the St. Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway and to the East it is the Warrington and Altrincham Junction Railway. It effectively was another route between Liverpool and Manchester, although it is closed in places and just runs freight services over parts of the line.
As both these southern Liverpool-Manchester routes go through Warrington, it could be a reasonable assumption, that some of the trains on the Northern Line could turnback in the town, as was originally envisaged in 1973.
There is a lot of scope to provide an intelligent solution to turning trains round, which would at worst add another four trains an hour to and from Liverpool.
I’ve just looked at how you get from Widnes to London or Carlisle by train on the National Rail Journey Finder. It is not an easy journey and at best involves a change at Liverpool or Manchester and at worst a transfer across Warrington.
A few days after I wrote this article, I visited Warrington. I found a modern town with a good shopping centre and wrote this.
As I walked through Warrington town centre, I thought that an innovative tramway engineer could probably find a way to turn the tramway northward after Bank Quay station to perhaps finish its journey by Warrington Central station and the bus station. The route would probably be not more complicated than some of those in Manchester that I saw today.
But you could also go for a simple solution. There is probably space at the low-level Bank Quay station for a bay platform, where trains from Liverpool would turn back. That would not solve the problem of transfer passengers between the two rail stations and the bus station. They use a shuttle bus at present, so why not increase the frequency, perhaps power it by batteries and make it more visible!
It is not an easy problem to solve, but I do believe that Warrington would make an ideal additional destination for Northern Line trains.
Unless they revert to street running, the trains coming to Warrington would be normal trains without any tram capability, thus simplifying the needs even more.
And after Warrington, should the Northern Line trains go all the way to Manchester? Or could the line through Warrington Central go to Manchester and the southern line underneath Bank Quay go to Stockport? The possibilities are endless.
If Liverpool’s tram-trains are certified for Manchester and vice-versa, you probably get some innovative joint services but you stir up an awful lot of political hornets’ nests.
22. Conclusions
Liverpool still has a lot of connecting railways and as it is acquiring a new fleet of electric trains and has aspirations to link the airport to the Merseyside electric rail network using a tram-train. There are also other places where a tram-train could be sensibly used to create new services, perhaps including these lines and applications.
1. The Airport Connection From South Parkway.
2. The Canada Dock Branch serving the football grounds.
3. Furthe Extensions to the Northern Line in both the North and South.
4. An iconic tram running up the river from Garston to Bootle and possibly further.
5. The Liverpool Loop Line from Hunts Cross to Aintree and Litherland.
I would think it would be prudent if the new train order included a number of tram-trains.
Liverpool though, does show that you don’t need to have trams to run tram-trains. You just need freight lines where adding passenger services is a necessary and plausible idea. You add the simpler stations using well-proven tramway technology, to make the whole project affordable.
The Northern Line could grow from a well-used, but limited line, which predominately serves the northern side of Liverpool, to one that goes along the bank of the Mersey and through Liverpool City Centre from Runcorn, Widnes, Warrington and Liverpool Airport in the South, to Southport, Ormskirk, Kirkby and Preston in the North. In the future, It might even link Chester and Stockport to Wigan, Preston and Blackpool.
If you look at the East London Line in London, which is of a similar layout, with modern trains, this now handles sixteen trains per hour through its core section. I think it is reasonable to expect that the Northern Line should be able to take a similar number of trains with just the investment of creating extra Southern terminals.
The line is but a sapling just about to grow into a tree, with a full size collection of branches.
If you look at the Future section in the Wikipedia entry for Merseyrail, you realise the potential that there is in Liverpool’s railways.
Tram-trains could help the dreams become realities.
Improving Rail Transport In Warwickshire
Warwickshire doesn’t often feature in rail infrastructure, but I was pleased to see that work is poised to start on a new station at Kenilworth, according to an article in Modern Railways. This will be served by new services on the Coventry and Leamington Line.
The council has even put up a blog. From which I clipped this plan of the new station.
New Kenilworth Station Plan
Compare this with the area now from Google Earth.
Kenilworth Now
Note that the current pedestrian bridge is retained. It also appears that the line through the station is going to be double-tracked.
Plans are also in place to upgrade the Coventry to Nuneaton Line, with better services and new stations at Coventry Arena and Bermuda Park, for which work has started in October 2014. Does this Google Eart image of the Coventry Arena, show the work site?
Coventry Arena Station Site
There’s an on-line leaflet describing the station improvements on the Nuckle on the Warwickshire County Council web site. The fenced-off com pound, would appear to be in the fright place for the station.
Fom this leaflet, I think that Bermuda Park station is north of the Griff Roundabout, where the B4113 joins the A444. The leaflet shows the station at some point on St. George’s Way, where the rail line goes close.
Bermuda Park Station
These three new stations and the upgraded lines are the sort of improvements to be welcomed.
As the Coventry to Nuneaton Line connects two electrified main lines, I wonder how long it is before the line gets wired? Or would this be a classic place to use a battery electric multiple unit?
It Looks Like This Class 319 Scrubbed Up Well
After a quick glance at the picture of Northern Rail’s first Class 319 train in a piece in Global Rail News, it looks like it’s scrubbed up well.
But then anything based 0n a Mark 3 coach, as are the 319s, are like well-respected actresses, who with a bit of make-up, TLC and some well-made clothes can outperform their younger fellows.
I’m looking forward to riding one from Liverpool Lime Street to a fully-rebuilt Manchester Victoria in a few weeks time.
Is The Battery Electric Multiple Unit (BEMU) A Big Innovation In Train Design?
By training I am an Electrical Engineer who specialised at Liverpool University and for a few years afterwards in the mathematics of the control of mechanical, electrical and other systems.
Over the last fifty years, I’ve liked to think of myself as scientifically green and in transport, I’ve come to the belief that we need to be as electric as possible, as this can produce a minimum of carbon dioxide and less noxious fumes and noise.
We may have produced a series of battery-electric vehicles for special purposes such as golf buggies, the electric milk floats of my childhood and light taxis and buses for historic city centres.
Electric Taxi In Malta
But where are the queues of stylish electric cars waiting for the charging points in my local car park in Dalston?
In my view, electric road vehicles with one or two rare exceptions, don’t really appeal to drivers, owners and users. You read reports that the economics are suspect without large subsidies. That’s as maybe, but having once owned a golf buggy, I can testify that battery life and performance wasn’t acceptable to the special needs on my farm.
So when Bombardier, Network Rail, Greater Anglia and others announced they were going to test a Class 379 4-carriage train as a battery-electric multiple unit (BEMU), I either thought they had more money than sense or there was something I’d missed.
Riding The BEMU
A desire to investigate found me on a cold morning in February boarding what looked to be a outwardly normal Class 379 train at Manningtree.
An Outwardly Normal Class 379 Train
The only visible difference was the Batteries Included sign on the side. Inside nothing appeared to have been changed
A Very Familiar Interior
Except for the destination display showing we were going the dozen miles to Harwich Town.
As we trundled away and breezed down and back up the Stour Estuary, I could detect no difference between the two runs and between train 379013 and its unmodified siblings, which I use regularly to Cambridge. The conductor assured me that they generally went one way under AC power from the catenary and the other on the batteries.
Returning from Harwich, I travelled with the train’s on-board test engineer, who was monitoring the train performance in battery mode on a laptop. He told me that acceleration in this mode was the same as a standard train, that the range was up to sixty miles and that only minimal instruction was needed to convert a driver familiar to the Class 379 to this battery variant.
It was an impressive demonstration, of how a full-size train could be run in normal service without connection to a power supply. I also suspect that the partners in the project must be very confident about the train and its technology to allow paying passengers to travel on their only test train.
It’s All About The Rolling Resistance
The physics of rolling resistance, explain why I was wrong to be sceptical and had now been so surprised and delighted by the Class 379 BEMU.
Most of us have driven a car with soft tyres and know that you need more power to maintain speed, as soft tyres have a higher rolling resistance.
Generally the rolling resistance of a steel wheel on a steel rail is lower, which helps trains move heavier loads for less power than road vehicles with rubber tyres.
But also if you read about the mathematics of rolling resistance, you will find that if you increase the load on a steel wheel running on a steel rail you lower the rolling resistance, so you can move the train for less power. This helps explain the impressive performance of the BEMU.
You have the paradox, that optimally-located heavy batteries, in a steel-wheel-on-rail vehicle, reduce the rolling resistance and mean it needs less power.
One of the most important rules of life is that you can’t disobey the laws of physics.
A Hybrid Train
In some ways to consider this train a battery electric multiple unit is wrong, as its nearest cousin is probably the hybrid bus, such as the New Routemaster in London. In the bus the battery is charged by a small diesel engine and final drive is all-electric.
In the rest of this article, I will continue to use BEMU, but hybrid electric multiple unit or HEMU might be better. It could be argued that the general public associate hybrid with something good, so there may be sensible public relations reasons for calling the trains HEMUs.
Using a BEMU
One of the main uses of a BEMU would be on a cross-country route that connects two electrified lines. The overcrowded Cambridge to Ipswich route would certainly be possible, as the gap between Haughley Junction and Cambridge is short of thirty miles and well within the capability of a BEMU.
Another use of a BEMU would be to extend an electrified route to an important town that needed a rail link bigger than can be provided by a two-coach diesel train of a certain age. London to Great Yarmouth via Norwich would be a typical route.
Branch lines off an electrified main line, such as the Felixstowe branch would be ideal for a BEMU.
The three East Anglian examples I have given could probably be served without spending a penny on infrastructure.
The Greater Anglia Involvement
Greater Anglia’s involvement in the project is significant as East Anglia has several routes suitable for a BEMU, in addition to those mentioned earlier.
The trains would also give the company the ability to extend some of the Liverpool Street to Cambridge services to perhaps Norwich, Newmarket and Bury St. Edmunds.
Some gaps like Ely to Norwich, might be stretching the range, but the trains could give the soon-to-be-two Cambridge stations much better access to a wider East Anglia from Peterborough and Wisbech in the West, Norwich and Cromer in the North and Yarmouth and Ipswich in the East.
East Anglia seems to suffer more than most from track and overhead wire problems and rebuilding. A BEMU would make a superb blockade buster and could even have been used to get passengers to Peterborough, when all the problems happened on the East Coast Main Line at Christmas, by jumping the gap from Ely.
The rail network in East Anglia also suffers from periodic overcrowding, especially in the summer, so extra carriages on many services would be welcome to Greater Anglia and users alike.
East Anglia for so long a rail backwater would love these trains.
Advantages To Network Rail
Network Rail is an infrastructure company so why is it getting involved in the design of trains?
Network Rail has some problems with electrification due to well-publicised issues and in some cases the large quantity, they are being tasked to install, which puts pressure on manpower and resources.
In some sensitive areas, there may be planning issues with putting up the overhead wires. A simple example in Suffolk illustrates the value of a BEMU. It is unlikely the Gainsborough Line will ever be electrified, as it runs through the Stour Valley and the Nimbys would have a field day if Network Rail decided to put overhead line gantries on the iconic listed Chappel Viaduct, which is the second largest brick structure in England. But as the line is only a dozen miles long, running a BEMU on the line would be a sensible idea.
There are probably a lot of places where using a BEMU, rather than electrifying saves Network Rail a lot of installation costs and lawyers fees. Passengers would get a brand new and probably larger electric train, from the day they can be delivered and after the train crew has been trained.
Electrification of passenger services is a proven revenue generator, but predicting how much electrification will increase traffic, is one of the blackest of black arts. The difficulty is illustrated by the North and East London Lines, which were built to run the three-car trains that were thought to be required for the level of traffic. London Overground is now going through the second train lengthening process to cope, which is also requiring various infrastructure changes. If London can’t get this right with their massive journey databases, how can you predict traffic on a branch line in say Dorset or Norfolk? A shiny modern BEMU could be a valuable tool for assessing the increase in traffic, by trialling one for a period to ascertain what needs to be done to improve a service. The solution could be anything from bringing back the terrible diesel multiple unit, through using a BEMU on the line to full electrification.
I think it is true to say, that Network Rail could probably cut the cost of electrification and line improvements, by better planning of the work.
There are also innumerable lines in the United Kingdom, where the distance is less than sixty or seventy miles and both ends of the line are electrified, which are possibilities for running BEMUs.
- Hurst Green to Lewes via Uckfield and the Marshlink Line in Sussex
- The Tyne Valley Line between Newcastle and Carlisle
- Many lines that link to electrified hubs like Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds.
- Lines in Scotland that link to the current electrification. This could include the new Borders Railway which is only thirty miles long.
- Any branch from an electrified main line.
Unfortunately for everybody concerned, the hundred miles between Salisbury and Exeter is probably just too far to run on batteries at present. But this could be possible in a few years, as the technology develops.
Many routes with minimal partial electrification could accept a BEMU tomorrow, which could be a more affordable alternative to full electrification.
- Full electrification often needs a lot of bridge and tunnel reconstruction to give sufficient clearance to the wires. With a BEMU, this is unnecessary.
- Deployment of BEMUs, could also release much-needed modern diesel trains for use on lines away from electrification.
I would argue it’s better to spend the money on rolling stock, rather than use it to enlarge bridges and tunnels.
The Biggest Advantage To Rail Companies And Users
The biggest advantage of the technology is a truly unusual one, which is akin to putting the cart before the horse.
It’s that the new BEMUs start to run as soon as they are delivered and even before the electrification is complete.
Suppose you are possibly going to electrify a line like Carlisle to Newcastle, where both ends are already wired.
Traditionally, you can’t run any electric trains, until the electrification is complete.
But if you used BEMUs to operate the line, you can actually deliver the trains and bring in the new service pattern before you electrify using the power at both ends to charge the batteries.
After electrification, you might replace the BEMUs with a non-battery sibling and move the BEMUs to another line to repeat the process.
So the passengers benefit earlier from new trains. The train company should also benefit, as hopefully all the publicity of better and possibly longer trains generates extra journeys.
Instead of the speed of the electrification works governing the pace of line modernisation, the limiting factor is how fast trains can be built and any necessary much smaller infrastructure improvements like platform extensions are completed.
A Possible Production BEMU
The partners in this project seem to have come up with some fairly tight performance objectives for the train.
- A sixty plus mile range. This seems to bridge a lot of network electrification gaps and the length of out and return on the average branch line – Achieved
- Performance similar to the standard Class 379 and enough to work the average secondary or branch line – Achieved.
- No change of passenger experience to a standard Class 379 – Achieved
- Identical Driving Characteristics to a standard Class 379 – Achieved
- An overall experience better than a Pacer or a Sprinter – Achieved by a wide margin. I’ve also ridden modern Class 171 and Class 172 diesel multiple units lately and the Class 379 BEMU was certainly better in terms of ambient noise.
Bombardier could just create a Class 379 BEMU, but I suspect that the upcoming Aventra train chosen for Crossrail would be used. After all, why would you use a boring old train, when you could have a sexy new one? Especially one that is lighter and more energy efficient. You could even borrow the use of a small on-board engine to charge the battery from the bus industry.
Probably the most difficult decision in the design is the train length, but why not make them all identical go-anywhere four carriage dual-voltage trains?
Incidentally, that go-anywhere capability will be enhanced when ERTMS becomes standard for all trains.
How Would BEMUs Affect Various Schemes?
The next few sections will look at various proposed schemes and how BEMUs might affect them.
The Felixstowe Branch
I’ve used the Felixstowe branch for over fifty years and the individual train capacity is now smaller than it was in the 1960s. But the frequency has improved and the service has got better since the Bacon Factory Chord was created.
It carries upwards of thirty freight trains each way every day and has long been mooted for electrification. Unless the complete route from
Felixstowe to Nuneaton and inside Felixstowe Port were also electrified, electrification of the branch line is probably a waste of time, as there would need to be a change of locomotive at some point.
I sometimes wonder if you want to have overhead wiring in a port or goods yard, with cranes lifting containers all the time.
I believe that the Class 88 locomotive is a better solution, as this would give electric haulage on electrified lines like the Great Eastern Main Line and diesel haulage on the branch and in the port.
Passengers on the line would like better and larger trains and this could be solved by a BEMU charging every time it returned to the Ipswich end of the branch.
Ipswich To Cambridge And Lowestoft
If you are going to run a BEMU from Ipswich to Felixstowe, then surely it would be a good idea to run the trains on the services from Ipswich to Cambridge and Lowestoft.
The gap between the overhead wires at Cambridge and Haughley Junction is less than thirty miles and would easily be jumped by a BEMU, charging itself at the two ends of the line.
Ipswich to Lowestoft is fifty miles which would certainly be too far for a BEMU going out and back on one filling of electricity at Ipswich. But as I believe a BEMU should be dual voltage, why not put in a shielded length of third-rail away from the platform side of the train in Lowestoft station. This picture shows the platform layout at Lowestoft with the current Norwich and Ipswich Class 156 trains in the platforms.
Surely, Network Rail’s engineers can come up with a third-rail system in the station for charging BEMUs, that meets the most draconian Health and Safety regulations.
If BEMUs were to also run the Norwich to Lowestoft services, then you’d have electrified the passenger services to the United Kingdom’s most easterly town.
What would a picture of two Aventra BEMU profiles in Lowestoft station, do for the town?
Completing The East Anglian Electrification Of Passenger Services
If some means of range extending like a third-rail-based charger in some terminal stations, then there is no reason that all unelectrified lines in East Anglia could be run successfully by BEMUs. These would include.
- Cambridge and Ely to Norwich on the Breckland Line
- Norwich to Yarmouth on the Wherry Lines
- Norwich to Cromer and Sheringham on the Bittern Line
- Marks Tey to Sudbury on the Gainsborough Line
The BEMUs would also be an ideal train for the proposed re-opening of Bramley Line between Wisbech and March and the possible creation of the Norfolk Orbital Railway from Sheringham to Wymondham.
Completing The Electrification In East Sussex
East Sussex Council has produced a document called Shaping Rail In East Sussex, and also proposes the electrification of the Marshlink Line and improving and fully electrifying the Wealden Line and Oxted Line.
I believe that BEMUs could be the key to completing the electrification of this important commuter area and releasing sixteen Class 171 diesel multiple units for areas with no electrification at all.
As BEMUs would effectively be a one-for-one replacement for the Class 171 and no infrastructure work would be needed except for the track work at Lewes, as the new trains were delivered, a Class 171 could be released to go and replace a Pacer or Sprinter.
The Borders Railway
I suspect that various Scots and their politicians will be a bit miffed, that a beautiful new railway will be running second-hand trains. I suspect that something like Class 171 or Class 172 will be used, but wouldn’t it be nice if four-coach electric trains were to be used on the route.
As the route is not being electrified, but power is available at the Edinburgh end and the line is only sixty miles out and back, the line would be an ideal candidate for equipping with sexy new BEMUs.
The only problem is that the Scots have just signed a deal with Hitachi to deliver a whole stable of new AT200 electric trains.
However, it should be noted that Abellio Greater Anglia is one of the partners in the testing of the experimental Class 379 BEMU and that Abellio ScotRail is the new Scottish franchise holder.
Incidentally, Abellio’s parent; Nederlandse Spoorwegen still have sa few diesel multiple units, so perhaps they have other motives in being involved with the BEMU.
Glasgow Crossrail And The Airport Rail Link
Glasgow Crossrail is a proposal to improve rail services in Glasgow described like this in Wikipedia.
The proposed Crossrail initiative involves electrifying and reopening the City Union Line for regular passenger use in conjunction with new filler sections of track which will connect the North Clyde, Ayrshire, and Kilmarnock and East Kilbride suburban routes together, therefore allowing through running of services through the centre of Glasgow in a North-South axis.
It has been an on-and-off project over the years, as has the closely-related Glasgow Airport Rail Link.
Perhaps by selectively using BEMUs on the City Union Line, some of the major problems of rail transport in Scotland’s largest city can be alleviated, until the budget allows full electrification across the city.
Replacing Pacers Out Of Electrified Hubs
I asked in the title of this post if a new battery electric multiple unit (BEMU) could be a replacement for the truly-dreadful Pacers.
On some routes out of Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and other electrified hubs, Pacers perform out and back services, which could probably be replaced by a BEMU.
As electrification progresses more and more, Pacers will find that they operate more of their routes partially under the wires. All of these routes will become candidates for BEMUs.
As the new trains will elsewhere displace some modern diesel multiple units, these could also probably chase a few Pacers to the scrapyard.
So in my view, new BEMUs may not always directly replace the Pacers, but they will certainly hasten their demise.
Should The Gospel Oak To Barking Line Be Electrified?
I know that freight is an important driver of electrification of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line, but how would the availability of a number of BEMUs affect how the work will proceed?
The Gospel Oak to Barking Line is being electrified at a cost of £115million. In addition eight new four carriage trains are being ordered for the line.
Electrification of the line is said to be difficult, as there are numerous bridges and viaducts.
But the line is also desperately short of capacity for passengers and desperately needs the new electric trains.
As the line is partly electrified, why not drop the full electrification for a few years and buy eight new BEMUs?
They would pick up power east of Woodgrange Park station and around South Tottenham, leaving only about twenty miles to run on the batteries.
If the batteries need a top up at Gospel Oak, why not put in a short length of overhead wire at the western end of the line. Or heresy of heresies, a short length of third rail!
As circumstances and funds allowed the rest of the line would be electrified.
All of the flexibility in the schedule would be down to the unique characteristics of the BEMU.
Some residents along the line might be annoyed by the continuing noise and smell of the diesel freight locomotives passing through if the line remains without full electrification, but passengers will get twice as many carriages as at present, in brand new electric trains. Passengers won’t care that they’re powered by batteries, so long as they are reliable, comfortable and punctual
Conclusion
Who’d have thought that such a rather unusual concept of a battery electric multiple unit would have so many possibilities?
I think I’ve seen the future and it just might work!
Sunderland Port Gets A Rail Connection
I’m all for freight traffic to be on the railways, even if it sometimes means that noisy and smelly freight trains pass through residential areas. But on the plus side, I’ve seen how rail improvements connecting the Port of Ferlixstowe to the wider rail network, has taken so much traffic off the busy A14. It is my belief, that one of the best ways to increase motorway capacity, is to remove as much long distance freight as possible.
DB Schenker obviously want to promote rail freight for commercial reasons and they seem to be backing a lot of new rail developments like the Northern Hub.
So I was not surprised to see the company very much behind the re-opening of a rail link into the Port of Sunderland, as reported in this piece in Modern Railways. DB Schenker’s spokesman says this.
‘Ports play a crucial part in DB Schenker Rail’s growth strategy and we are delighted to bring rail back to Port of Sunderland.
It will be interesting to see how busy this rail link becomes in the next few years.
Increasingly, these last mile rail links are being created or renewed. The only losers are probably the drivers of heavy good vehicles.
This small rail link has been renewed in an area that could see a lot of development in the next few years. This Google Earth map shows the rough route of the rail link along the coast.
The Durham Coast South Of Sunderland
Sunderland Port is marked by the two curved breakwaters at the top and the link joins the Durham Coast Line that runs from Newcastle via Sunderland and Hartlepool to Middlesbrough, at Ryhope Grange junction, which is near to the marked McDonalds.
The Durham Coast Line has an hourly service between Newcastle and Middlesbrough and also connects various ports and sites to the rail freight network. It is also used by Grand Central services between Sunderland and London and as a diversionary route for the East Coast Main Line. Local groups are also keen that the line be upgraded with a better passenger service between the Tyne, Wear and Tees areas.
In a sane world, this line would be a prime candidate for electrification linked to the East Coast Main Line at Newcastle and Darlington. A few points.
1. It would be an important electrified diversion for the increasingly crowded East Coast Main Line.
2. I suspect Grand Central and other East Coast Main Line operators are pushing for this electrification, as it would enable direct high speed services between Newcastle and London via Sunderland, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough.
3. After the completed electrification of the Trans-Pennine routes, it would also improve services from towns and cities not on the East Coast Main Line to the western side of the Pennines.
However full electrification is probably not possible as the northern part of the line has been electrified for the Newcastle Metro to a different standard. But the new passenger trains like the Class 800 and new freight locomotives like the Class 88, would just switch to their on-board diesel power,
As an aside here, Tees Valley Metro, is being developed around Middlesbrough, in rather a stop-go fashion. Surely if the Durham Coast Line is electrified and that electrification is extended to Darlington and then perhaps on the Tees Valley Line to Bishops Auckland to serve both the National Railway Museum at Shildon and the Hitachi train factory at Newton Aycliffe. It would seem a bit mad to build a large factory to make electric trains and then have to haul them in-and-out with a diesel locomotive.
If nothing else, all of these options prove to me, that the North East should have a similar sort of autonomy as Greater Manchester is getting. That would enable the area to bring together all of the ideas about extending the transport system.
Looking at Wikipedia’s list of proposed rail infrastructure projects, these are in the North East.
Newcastle Station Redevelopment
Tyne And Wear Metro Developments
It’s not a long list. Other areas south of Hadrian’s Wall, like Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, London, Merseyside and Manchester have much better developed plans on the drawing board, even if they know some will be a long time coming.
I wonder if Department of Transport officials when talking to representatives from the North East, say to them, you’ve got an electrified railway to London, the Tyne and Wear Metro, rebuilding of Newcastle station and a brand new train factory, so what more do you want?
Surely, local elected representatives should decide what is best value to the communities they serve. No-one based outside an area, can ever know all of the subtle local reasons, why things should or should not be done. As an example, Greater Anglia’s stations in East London are managed from Norwich. I don’t think they manage them very well and not for good reason are most being put under the care of Transport for London.
Most transport in the North East should be under the control of a single body, so that the limited finances available will be better allocated.
Electrification In East Anglia
East Anglia is very much a backwater as regards rail investment. Of the main lines only the Great Eastern Main Line is fully electrified and the trains on that line are not in the best of states. At least the line is going to be updated to allow refurbished trains to get to Norwich in ninety minutes and Ipswich in under the hour from Liverpool Street.
This speeding up of the easternmost line coupled with the improved links of Cambridge and Peterborough with Thameslink and Shenfield with Crossrail, will show up the rest of East Anglia’s railways for the crap they are.
Yesterday’s tiresome journey to and from Ipswich, illustrated how when there is major work or problems on the Great Eastern Main Line, the secondary routes can’t cope and bus replacements have to be used.
Suppose that the Ipswich to Ely Line together with the Cambridge branch had been electrified, as it should have been some years ago, when the bridges were opened up to take the larger freight containers.
This would have enabled passengers between Ipswich and London to have done the journey a lot easier with a change at Cambridge. Or for planned closures like yesterday, perhaps an hourly service could be run between London and Ipswich via Cambridge. As the part of the Great Eastern Main Line between Ipswich and Norwich was open, they could even have done the full trip with a reversal at Ipswich.
Electrification of the line from Ipswich to Ely and Cambridge, would give other benefits other than the broad one of flexibility, when a need for diversions arises.
1. More and more freight trains are going across Suffolk to and from the port of Felixstowe. At present all are diesel hauled, mainly by noisy and smelly Class 66s.
If there was an all-electric route from Felixstowe to Peterborough, then many of these trains could be hauled by environmentally-friendly and quieter electric locomotives. But that would mean electrifying the Felixstowe branch and the the port.
However, before this extra electrically eventually happens, we will see the arrival of the Class 88 locomotive. This locomotive which can run either using electric or diesel power will probably have sufficient diesel range and power to bridge the non-electrified gaps from Felixstowe to the East Coast Main Line.
2. Capacity on the routes between Ipswich and Cambridge and Ely is severely limited and electrification would enable something a bit larger than the current trains to be used.
3. Cambridge is overflowing with ideas, investment and jobs. But there is a shortage of space for housing where all the people drawn to the area can live.
So an increased capacity line to Ipswich, with hopefully a more frequent service, would surely help out with some of Cambridge’s space problems.
4. An efficient and good rail service between Ipswich and Cambridge, would certainly help development along the line and especially at Bury St. Edmunds and Newmarket. Both towns need stations to fit their increasingly important status.
5. Cambridge is getting a new station at the Science Park, This will not generally effect the line from Ipswich to Cambridge unless an extra curve is built at Ely to allow a direct connection between Ipswich and the new station.
6. Cambridge and possibly Ely are going to become more important rail interchanges, because of Thameslink, the new East West Rail Link and probable improvements in services direct to the Midlands and the North. Difficult journeys like Ipswich-Gatwick will possibly be easier with a simple change at Cambridge.
On the technical side, electrification of the Ipswich to Cambridge Line has a lot going for it, to make it not the most difficult electrification project. There’s no tunnels and the line has recently been upgraded to make the erection of overhead wires fairly easy compared to some other places. The line runs between two electrified main lines across fairly flat country.
There is probably a suitable resource of refurbished trains, like Class 317 or Class 365 that could be used on the line. Concerning the Class 365, which currently only run the Kings Cross to Cambridge, Kings Lynn and Peterborough services, many of which will be replaced by the extended Thameslink, where will these trains end up?
If Ipswich and Cambridge are joined together by an electrified railway, you can just hear the loud cries of unfairness from Norfolk, where the belief is that Norwich always takes precedence over Ipswich. After all Norwich is a city and Ipswich and Bury St. Edmunds are not!
But to be fair, a lot of the reasons for electrifying the Ipswich to Ely Line also apply to the Breckland Line, that links Cambridge and Norwich via Ely.
1. It would give the opportunity to run services direct to London, if the Great Eastern Main Line has to be closed for some reason.
2. It would enable capacity and frequency of trains to be increased.
3. It would help take the pressure off Cambridge.
4. It would help development all along the line.
5. The new Cambridge Science Park station is on the line.
6. Connecting Norfolk to Cambridge for all those ongoing services, would probably be a good thing.
The only factor which is not important on the line is freight.
If Norwich and Ipswich are fully connected to Cambridge and Ely by electrified railways, that only leaves one major line in East Anglia not electrified; the Ely to Peterborough line.
With all that freight going to and from Felixstowe, I can’t believe that this line will not be electrified.
Government Calls For More Strategic Rail Freight Interchanges
Modern Railways is reporting that a government report is calling for the development of Strategic Rail Freight Interchanges (SRFIs). It says this.
A new government report calls for development of Strategic Rail Freight Interchanges (SRFIs) to deal with growth in the rail freight sector and encourage a modal shift from road to rail haulage.
So how many large rail freight interchanges exist in the UK?
An article in Wikipedia called Rail Freight in Great Britain, lists a number of inland freight terminals. Most seem to be small with the exception of Daventry.
Living in London, I have seen the saga of the development of a rail freight terminal at Radlett. But nothing seems to be happening at present and despite the site being granted planning permission in July 2014, this is the sort of project that might not survive the next General Election. Another large freight interchange; the East Midlands Gateway at a site North of East Midlands Airport, appears to be very much opposed by the local residents.
We have a choice in this country. We can either take the freight containers to and from the ports, a trainload at a time or we can move them singly or hundreds of trucks. As at some point for the local distribution and collection, a tuck must be involved, there will be a need for SRFIs, where goods are sold or manufactured. Obviously, in a few cases, as with the Mini plant at Cowley, trains will go into the manufacturing sites.
Bear in mind that schemes like the Felixstowe-Nuneaton Freight Capacity Improvement which will take 225,000 lorries off the road, will increase the need for inland freight terminals and hopefully free up the roads.
But if we are going to have long freight trains winding their way across the country and through London like these vans, we must do a few things to improve life for the neighbours of rail lines. After all, the standard freight motive power of a Class 66 diesel locomotive is a smelly and noisy beast.
- As many freight lines as possible must be electrified and some powerful electric locomotives must be sourced. The Great Western Modernisation and Electric Spine will help, but important freight routes like Felixstowe-Nuneaton must also be electrified.
- In London, the Gospel Oak to Barking Line is being electrified and hopefully, the days of diesel locomotives in the capital are numbered.
- There are also places on cross-country routes like Lincoln, where level crossings and long freight trains, are a big source of annoyance. These points of irritations must be replaced by bypasses or bridges.
There is one important benefit of electric freight services, that has nothing to do with the moving of goods. It is the ability to run more and better passenger services using electric trains. In the next few years, due to the upgrading of existing electric services, there are also quite a few good quality electric trains that can be cascaded and/or refurbished.
As an example, if Felixstowe to Nuneaton were to be electrified, then services from Cambridge, Ely, Ipswich and Stansted to Birmingham could be run by a train like a Class 319. In fact, as that electrification would link to both the East Coast and West Coast Main Lines, other services into East Anglia would be possible.
Electrification Of Manchester To Preston Via Bolton
My trip to Bolton today, beautifully illustrated that the Manchester to Preston line needs to be electrified and the Ordsall Chord needs to be built. This chord would allow trains to serve both Manchester Piccadilly and Victoria stations as they pass through the city.
Trains do run directly between Piccadilly and Horwich Parkway, but going to the match, I did want to take some pictures in Manchester, so I walked to Victoria and got the train from there. Hopefully, when the scheme is fully implemented, all of the stations served by the line will get better connections at Piccadilly to and from the South.
Wikipedia says this about services between Horwich Parkway and Manchester
Northern Rail: there is a half-hourly service Monday to Saturdays northbound to Preston, with hourly extensions to Blackpool North and southbound to Bolton, with trains running alternately to Manchester Piccadilly or Manchester Victoria. An hourly service continues onwards to Stockport and Hazel Grove.
Trans-Pennine Express: one train per hour calls in each direction throughout the day, northbound to Blackpool North and southbound to Manchester Airport.
I think after the Ordsall Chord is built, it is reasonable to assume that a good proportion of the services will call at both Manchester stations. Certainly, it has been stated that Manchester Airport services will do this.
The train I got to the match from Victoria was one of Northern Rail’s better elderly diesel units, but coming back I was in one of TransPennine’s modern Class 185 trains.
After electrification of the line, I suspect there’ll be a bit of a reallocation of routes between the two train companies and most services on the line will be run by refurbished Class 319 trains. These are four carriages to a trainset and they can also be run in eight and twelve coach formations, so they can run services based on the newly-electrified lines in a very flexible manner, suited to the traffic.
I personally think that the train service between Manchester and Blackpool is totally inadequate at just a couple of rather pedestrian trains per hour.
As electrification is likely to bring a raising of speed limits and a larger pool of bigger and much better rolling stock, I would think that in a few years time, the Manchester-Blackpool service will bear no relation to the terrible one it is today.
At present it is not just the Manchester-Liverpool and Manchester-Preston-Routes that are being electrified. In their description of the electrification in this report, Network Rail show this map.
Northern Electrification Map
Note how Wigan-Liverpool via Huyton, Manchester Victoria-Leeds via Huddersfield and Guide Bridge-Stalybridge are also shown as going to be electrified. As is the Windermere Branch Line, which is not shown on this map. All are costed and funded, but there have been a few engineering problems, meaning that the Manchester to Liverpool services didn’t start when they should have done. The problems are reported in the Liverpool Echo.
Network Rail has admitted the long-awaited launch of electric train services between Lime Street and Manchester Victoria and Manchester Airport will now be postponed until next year, possibly as late as February.
The serious delay has been blamed on “unexpected ground conditions and technical issues” encountered while installing the overhead catenary wires on the 184-year-old former Liverpool & Manchester Railway mainline, said Network Rail.
This will only be the start of the revolution.
As there are 86 Class 319 trainsets, that are to be split between the North and the Great Western Main Line, I’m sure that enough sets can be found to run a good service between the following destinations, when the current electrification plans are complete.
- Liverpool-Blackpool
- Liverpool-Lancaster, Carlisle and Scotland
- Liverpool-Leeds/Newcastle via Manchester Victoria
- Manchester-Blackpool
- Preston-Windermere
Services from Liverpool, that go North up the West Coast Main Line, don’t run at present, except to Preston and Blackpool. But if the lines are all electric, subject to the paths being found, I think that one of the operators will run direct services between Liverpool and Glasgow. Failing that Liverpool to Blackpool services will probably be timed to connect with services to both Scotland and the South at Preston. Or perhaps some of the First TransPennine services between Scotland and Manchester , could divide and connect at Preston. But whatever happens travel between Liverpool and Scotland will be a lot easier.
Once electrification gets to Leeds, this will enable services from Manchester and Liverpool to go all the way to Newcastle, opening up more possibilities for new services.
I don’t believe that this will be the end of the development of electric services in the North.
The Class 319 trains currently ply between Bedford and Brighton, which by road is about 120 miles. So they should be capable of serving the slightly shorter distance between Liverpool and Hull. It would seem they are capable of travelling across the North of England reliably. As they are 100 mph electric trains, they certainly wouldn’t be slower on the route than the current Class 185 trains and probably only slightly slower than the new Class 350 trains, that First TransPennine use on Manchester-Scotland services.
In a few months time, electric services between Liverpool and Manchester will commence, probably followed about two years later by electric services from Liverpool and Manchester to Preston and Blackpool.
If the North like their refurbished trains running on electrified lines, it will be hard to resist the pressure to put in more electrification.
If Network Rail can get its act together on electrification, I think that by 2022, the number of electrified lines in the North will be greater than currently planned.
The route from Manchester to Sheffield by the Hope Valley Line will probably be a priority, as when the Midland Main Line from Sheffield to Doncaster, Nottingham and London is electrified in 2020, it will open up all sorts of routes like Liverpool and Manchester to Nottingham and the East Midlands.
If Hull to Leeds and Doncaster is electrified, then this opens up the possibility of electric Liverpool and Manchester to Hull services via Leeds. The BBC has this report about ministers backing the electrification.
The government has backed plans to electrify the Hull to Selby rail line.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said he was making £2.5m available to take the project to the next stage
First Hull Trains is planning to spend £94m electrifying 70 miles (112km) of track to improve connections with the wider rail network.
Work is already under way to electrify the line from Manchester to Leeds, York and Selby and is due to be completed by December 2018.
This one will happen, as First Hull Trains wouldn’t spend £94million of their own money, if they didn’t think they’d make a decent return. They are probably trying to get their hands on some of the InterCity225s that will be made redundant by the new Class 800/801 trains.
It is almost if a hundred miles per hour railway across the country is fighting its way to birth by stealth, aided by some refurbished over twenty-years old British Rail rolling stock.
An interesting aside is what will happen to the thirty one InterCity225s. I have heard a rumour that some will be cascaded to the Greater Anglia Main Line to run London to Ipswich and Norwich services currently run by Class 90 locomotives hauling Mark 3 coaches.
I haven’t travelled in an InterCity225 for some months, but the last time I did on a short trip to Peterborough, they did not appear to my untrained eye to be scrapyard fodder yet.
As they are genuine 200 kph high speed trains, could we see them providing fast services from Liverpool to Newcastle and Hull in under two hours? Politicians and comedians may well have poked fun at British Rail for years, but now that we have a UK cash flow shortage, who are stepping up to the plate to help out our impoverished railways? A whole series of British Rail trains like the InterCity 225s and Class 319. No-one should forget the refurbished Class 315, Class 317 and InterCity125s, which will fill other gaps in the bad planning of our railways in theThatcher, Blair and Brown decades.
The only problem with the InterCity225s, is that they may be too long for some of the stations across the Pennines. But solving that is in the grand scheme of things a relatively minor problem for good engineers, architects and construction teams. Also, as they get replaced will some end up on the West Coast Main Line providing direct services to Blackpool?
Once the basic spine across the country is complete and running high-capacity services fast electric services between Blackpool, Liverpool and Manchester, in the West and Leeds, Hull and Newcastle in the East, two things will happen.
Politicians will press Network Rail to create a genuine high speed railway or HS3, across the country, as they love high profile projects, by which they will be remembered.
But more importantly, all of those connecting lines across the North will be prime candidates foe electrification, so they can be home to some more Class 319s.
HS3 will eventually be created, but only when the new electrified service is in need of more capacity.
I think that the electrification in the North is an unstoppable series of projects, that will only finish, when all lines are electrified.
Talking to people on the trains to Bolton yesterday, I don’t think the passengers know how their lives will change, when what is certainly going to be implemented happens.
One very extensive traveller, I met on the train between Manchester Victoria and Horwich Parkway, didn’t realise that the new electric trains in a couple of years would be larger units that the current diesels. He also had travelled on Thameslink to his daughter in South London and actually thought the current trains on that route were pretty good. He hadn’t realised that these would be running after a basic refurbishment all around Manchester.
And then on the trip back to Piccadilly, I met two young ladies, who were coming all the way from Eskdale to see the Who in Manchester. They didn’t kow that the branch to Windermere is going to be upgraded and said that it would have made their journey today a lot easier.
The rail industry in the North needs to spread the word. I have a feeling that the Class 319s, when they start operating in a few months between Liverpool and Manchester will start the process.
The Anonymous Widower 